a scrap of paper. He would be quite pained
if we said that dumdum bullets "by their very frightfulness" would be
very useful to keep conquered Germans in order. Do what he will, he
cannot get outside the idea that he, because he is he and not you, is
free to break the law and also to appeal to the law. It is said that the
Prussian officers play at a game called Kriegspiel, or the war game. But
in truth they could not play at any game, for the essence of every game
is that the rules are the same on both sides.

But, taking every German institution in turn, the case is the same; and
it is not a case of mere bloodshed or military bravado. The duel, for
example, can legitimately be called a barbaric thing, but the word is
here used in another sense. There are duels in Germany; but so there are
in France, Italy, Belgium, Spain; indeed, there are duels wherever there
are dentists, newspapers, Turkish baths, time tables, and all the curses
of civilization--except in England and a corner of America. You may
happen to regard the duel as a historic relic of the more barbaric
States on which these modern States were built. It might equally well be
maintained that the duel is everywhere the sign of high civilization,
being the sign of its more delicate sense of honor, its more vulnerable
vanity, or its greater dread of social disrepute. But whichever of the
two views you take, you must concede that the essence of the duel is an
armed equality. I should not, therefore, apply the word barbaric, as I
am using it, to the duels of German officers, or even the broadsword
combats that are conventional among the German students. I do not see
why a young Prussian should not have scars all over his face if he likes
them; nay, they are often the redeeming points of interest on an
otherwise somewhat unenlightening countenance. The duel may be defended;
the sham duel may be defended.

*The One-Sided Prussian Duel.*

What cannot be defended is something really peculiar to Prussia, of
which we hear numberless stories, some of them certainly true. It might
be called the one-sided duel. I mean the idea that there is some sort of
dignity in drawing the sword upon a man who has not got a sword--a
waiter, or a shop assistant, or even a schoolboy. One of the officers of
the Kaiser in the affair at Zabern was found industriously hacking at a
cripple. In all these matters I would avoid sentiment. We must not lose
our tempers at the mere cruelty of t